Every second car in Switzerland is leveraged
Published: Tuesday, Jan 9th 2024, 07:30
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In Switzerland, fewer and fewer private cars are being paid for out of pocket: every second vehicle is financed externally.
Currently, less than half of Swiss men and women - 45% to be precise - have bought their own car, according to a survey conducted by the online comparison service Comparis on Tuesday. At 51 percent, women are more willing to buy their own vehicle, while the figure for men is clearly lower at 40 percent.
The language regions also differ: while in German-speaking Switzerland a good half have bought their car, the figure is only 34 percent in French-speaking Switzerland and just 21 percent in Ticino.
Leasing is the most popular form of debt financing. In 2022, around 214,800 new leasing contracts for vehicles were concluded in Switzerland. The number of leased cars thus rose by just under 2 percent within a year.
People under the age of 55 and those with middle and higher incomes in particular choose this form (30% and 37% respectively). However, less than a fifth of low-income earners with a household income of less than CHF 4,000 take out a leasing contract. "Leasing is often an expensive option that also requires expensive fully comprehensive insurance," explains Comparis expert Sandro Spaeth.
Loans less popular
Other forms of external financing are less common: Only just under 16 percent of car owners have taken out a loan or credit from family or friends.
Car subscriptions are even less popular. This model is only used by 3% of respondents.
The representative survey was conducted by the market research institute Innofact on behalf of Comparis in April 2023 among 1059 people in all regions of Switzerland.
©Keystone/SDA
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